Preview: Battle of the Beers

The Battle of the Beers Festival, in Manchester in December, aims to bring together those with a love of craft beer and breweries to raise money for charity.

The festival, on December 15 and 16, will be staged at the beautiful 53two Studios in the heart of Manchester city centre and will see breweries put their best beer forward in a bid to be crowned the ‘People’s’ and ‘Brewers’ choices.

While the festival will have a particular focus on craft beers from Manchester-based breweries, visitors can also expect to see a range of the best national and international craft beers on offer.

In addition, there will be bar offering a range of gins to sample, along with gin-based cocktails. Street food, snack stalls and music will also feature.

The Battle Bar will see breweries pit their best beers up against each other for a chance to win one of two awards. The first is the brewers’ choice, which will be rated by an official beer tasting panel. The second, the people’s choice, will be chosen by attendees by paper ballot vote and social media.

Ben Selby, one of the event organisers, said: “The idea for the festival came about from a collective passion for craft beer and seeing Greater Manchester become, once again, one of the leading locations for independent breweries.

“We wanted to create a place where people can come together to celebrate the passion, authenticity, excitement, creativity and joy of craft beer. We also wanted to bring craft beers to a new, wider audience and provide an event that is different and memorable.”

£1 from every ticket sold will be donated to charity and a raffle will also be running over the course of the festival, with prizes including artwork prints, rare bottles, brew days, brewery tours and tasting sessions, to raise money for homeless projects across Manchester. Further charity partners will be decided by the Battle of the Beers winning breweries.

• Advance tickets will cost £8.50 per session, available from the Battle of the Beers website. Sessions will run from noon until 5 pm and 6pm to 11.30pm on both festival days, and all tickets include one free beer token, a festival glass and festival guide. Weekend tickets are also available, which gives attendees access to all sessions, a BOTB tote bag and eight beer tokens.